The Royale Gazette: BHC leaks: Law Lords protect press freedoms

Bermuda's media has the right to report more revelations from a leaked Police dossier on the Bermuda Housing Corporation (BHC) scandal, the Island's highest court of appeal has ruled.

In a landmark judgment, five Law Lords from the Privy Council in London said previous refusals by the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal to interfere with the freedom of the press were correct.

They also ruled that the Attorney General and Police Commissioner, who brought the case, should pay the costs. These will run to six figures and will now have to be met from the public purse.

Royal Gazette editor Bill Zuill said yesterday: "Today is a good day for freedom of expression in Bermuda and reaffirms the public's right to know."

The newspaper's lawyer Alan Dunch said: "All the Bermudian media is now free to print that which they consider necessary and appropriate."

Attorney General Philip Perinchief, acting for the Government, and Commissioner of Police George Jackson asked for the media gag earlier this year after ZBM television news broadcast extracts from the Police files on May 23, and the Mid-Ocean News published stories on June 1 containing further details.

According to the extracts published by the Mid-Ocean News, Premier Ewart Brown, former Premier Jennifer Smith, construction boss Zane DeSilva and others were investigated by Police looking into allegations of corruption at the BHC.

When the probe concluded in 2004, the then acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Kulandra Ratneser, said many of those investigated could only be accused of bad ethics.

Mr. Ratneser also said some of those investigated escaped prosecution due to Bermuda's antiquated corruption laws.

Since the BHC scandal, which is believed to have cost taxpayers $8 million, one person has been convicted. Terrence Smith, a BHC officer, was found guilty and jailed last year on 41 counts of fraud.

Referring to Mr. Ratneser's comments during the hearing yesterday, Lord Justice Hoffman of the Privy Council said: "He's quoted as saying it's unethical but not criminal. If that's so, surely the public has a right to know if their politicians behaved unethically?"

His colleague Lord Justice Neuberger observed of the possible unpublished contents of the dossier: "It might be absolute dynamite and the people ought to know'."

Chief Justice Richard Ground turned down the original request to impose a news blackout on further extracts from the files being published on June 18.

He said the balance between protecting the confidential Police file — which the plaintiffs alleged had been stolen — and upholding the constitutional right of the press to report serious allegations favoured the latter in this case.

"The (BHC) allegations are not gratuitous, in that there is some evidence to support them, as set out in the material so far reported.

"Nor do the allegations concern the private personal life of those concerned. They touch upon their conduct in office," he said.

"In those circumstances I think that the public interest is genuinely engaged, and this is not a case of the public being officiously interested in matters which do not concern them."

The Court of Appeal subsequently upheld his decision but allowed the Attorney General and Police Commissioner to take their case to the Privy Council, deeming it to be a matter of "major public importance".

Dr. Brown launched a stinging attack on the justice system after the Court of Appeal refused to bar further publications, and accused the Opposition of engineering the leak in a pre-election bid to destabilise his Government.

In a statement from his spokesman on June 25, Dr. Brown said if the Privy Council ruled, as it did yesterday, against restraining the media then "Bermuda's long-standing supremacist oligarchy would be vested with legal licence to intensify the ongoing UBP/media tyranny".

Dr. Brown has also launched his own personal legal action against this newspaper and others to stop the publication of further information about him from the BHC file. That action is set to be heard at Supreme Court.

Reacting to news of the Privy Council ruling yesterday, he said: "The appropriate thing for the Government to do is simply accept the decision of the highest court."

Speaking in advance of the decision, he had explained why he is suing media organisations to stop them publishing further details about him from the BHC files.

"The publications named in the suit are of the opinion that my goal is to try to gag people. That's not true. I'm merely trying to discourage a terrible precedent.

"With the contents of Police files being printed in the newspaper we are headed in a dangerous direction," he told The Royal Gazette.

Dr. Brown's lawyer Charles Richardson, who attended the Privy Council hearing, said the ruling would not affect the personal legal action "one jot".

The Privy Council judges took just over four hours to hear the case, and will give the full reasons for their decision in writing later.

The Attorney General and Mr. Jackson were represented by James Guthrie QC while Saul Froomkin QC and Alan Dunch represented this newspaper and sister paper the Mid-Ocean News.

Noting that costs were awarded in favour of the media organisations — the others are Bermuda Broadcasting Company and Defontes Broadcasting Company — Mr. Zuill said: "It's fair to say that if you take the costs of both sides together it is likely to run into six figures.

"Since it was dismissed with costs, the taxpayer is going to end up shouldering the bulk of that."

Sen. Perinchief declined to comment on the ruling. Acting Police Commissioner Roseanda Young said: "The Bermuda Police Service has appealed to the highest court, the Privy Council, to protect the confidentiality of Bermuda Police Service confidential information.

"We now accept the ruling made today by the Privy Council. However, that ruling is separate from the investigation into the missing documents, which is still ongoing.

"Therefore there will be no further comment at this time, as any such comment has the potential to jeopardise that investigation."